I have recently read the Last Kingdom series. I find that it does not merely glorify male deeds per the usual patriarchal cults of fiction and history, but provides a fresh and inclusive view of the other half of Uhtred’s world. In sharing the great sweep of contemporaneous female experience, we meet a blessed nun “spread in the buttercups” and a woman who is among the great leader/warriors of her time. We see Uhtred mourn a beloved daughter who died heroically in battle, and a cherished wife dead in child birth. We see hapless females debased in slavery, and noble women bought and sold as pawns in male power games. We meet a vile sorceress, a wondrous Squirrel and a loving Lady of Bebbanburg. They are all deeply entwined in Uhtred’s tale. Whether he hates them or loves them (and sometimes both) we don’t just see the hero of the shield wall, the usual half cup of fiction. Instead, we are given a full cup – a heady mixture of the most blessed and cursed of both genders. I came into this series expecting the usual savage swordsmen. Instead, I found a larger horizon which challenged my regrettably chauvinistic views of Medieval history. It strikes me that Mr. Cornwell (deliberately, I suspect) has given us a rollicking tale with a strongly Feminist component – a world which surely reflects my own. It has been a wonderful read.

Robert Jacobson